Xenophilius

As we approach the holiday season, I am reminded of how disappointed I am about this year’s HP Advent calendar (in contrast to how much I appreciated last year’s version). While some people are celebrating that all of the minifigs in this year’s set are new, I don’t think those minifigs are particularly useful. Yes, it is novel for the students to have scarves but not robes, but I can’t recall a time when the movies actually showed them wearing scarves without robes. (Logically, if the weather is cold enough to warrant a scarf, wouldn’t the student be wearing a robe too?) The Dumbledore and Flitwick minifigs are nice, but not that distinctive. The caroling ghost is easily the best item in this year’s calendar, but let’s remember that this ghost only appeared in one movie for about two seconds. The non-minifig items may be the most disappointing of any HP advent calendar so far. I like the crackers, but the house statues look odd to me, and the house-colored tables have no basis in the movies or books. Why couldn’t Lego have instead included the fun cereal boxes from the Chamber of Secrets set? I’d welcome more of those. The best HP Advent calendars have enhanced other regular sets such as the Yule Ball and Hogsmeade, but online reviewers have pointed out that it is very difficult to incorporate pieces from this year’s calendar into the new Great Hall set. So I will not be getting the Advent calendar this year. Instead, as a substitute, I purchased the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes set and will be doling out portions of it for my daughter to build each day in December since it has lots of fun shop items and minifigs. As for next year, while the movies never showed the holidays there, I am hoping Lego makes a Diagon Alley-themed Advent calendar that complements the shop sets.

I'm surprised that so many people here are happy about the advent calendar. I'm usually a big fan of the HP advent calendars, but I'm probably not going to get it this year. I just don't see the point. I'll say the crackers are great. The caroling ghost is a novelty, but let's be clear it is a character who only appeared one movie for less than 4 seconds. The other minifigs are just slight variations on previous designs. (And, personally, I'd prefer to have a new Dumbledore based on Michael Gambon's version.) Otherwise, this calendar is mostly tables. Furthermore, the house color scheme for the table tops is unnecessary, and inaccurate in terms of the movies and books. Most items on the tables are boring. And those house statues simply don't appeal to me. Am I missing something here, because a lot of you sound so pleased about this set. Other years' calendars (esp. Yule Ball and Hogsmeade) seemed much more useful than this one. The main use I see for this year's calendar would be for people who are new to collecting HP Legos (so they didn't get the 2018 Great Hall) and can't afford $200 for the newest Great Hall; maybe this will serve as a low cost Great Hall alternative for them.

If Lego does a Grimmauld or Burrow-themed Advent calendar, what minifigs and builds would you want to see included (that aren't already in the non-Advent sets)? I'm finding it difficult to come up with a wish list. For Grimmauld, an injured Mr. Weasley minifig in a crown seems a bit grim and not a useful figure outside of that one scene. In terms of builds, the broomstick Santa at Grimmauld and the ice-skating snowman cake at the Burrow are too small to build on a scale to display with the minifigs. So what would be better options that you'd be excited to get?

Since we're talking about Gabrielle, I'll mention something I meant to share last year re: the Second Task set. The Gabrielle minifig from the previous Beauxbatons set had a face option showing her eyes closed. Using that Gabrielle minifig with closed eyes works nicely for display of the Second Task set. If you put Garbielle rather than Hermoine in the floating chain, you can depict the moment when Krum has swum off with Hermoine (I put them on the ladder) and Harry is faced with only Ron and Gabrielle remaining. This removes the need for characters missing from the Second Task set (Fleur, Cedric, Cho) since they are no longer in the scene at that point.

In terms of future Advent calendars, a logical holiday-themed location would be the Burrow, since that’s where they spent Christmas in HBP. While I wouldn’t mind an Advent calendar based on Christmas at Grimmauld from OotP, Grimmauld is such a dark location that I’d be surprised if Lego chose it for a holiday set (not that I would mind a set with a bunch of mounted elf heads). In contrast, the Burrow feels more warm and holiday-ish (though admittedly the movie version ends with the attack on the Burrow). If Lego based its Advent calendar on the book version of the Burrow Christmas rather than the movie version, that could open up some exciting minifig opportunities to include Bill Weasley, Percy, Scrimgeour, or Fleur.

For folks in the US looking for a good price on the new Lego Harry Potter Advent calendar, I noticed that my local Costco now has it in stock and is selling it for $35.

Yesterday, I saw the photo shared here of the builds in the upcoming HP advent calendar, and initially I was a bit ambivalent about it. But now I see that the Lego website shows what the interior display portion of the AC box will look like, and I think it is brilliant. For Lego to make a background image that combines an exterior view of Hogsmeade with the interiors of four shops, and builds for each of those shops, is marvelous!

Fair enough. I guess I just hoped that the golden item on the table was something more interesting.

But wizards don't use electricity, right?

What is the golden item on the table next to the blue chair supposed to represent?

One of the things I particularly appreciate about the new Hogsmeade Station set is that it is one of the only Harry Potter Lego sets based on a location you can visit in real life (outside of the Warner Bros studio tour and the Universal theme parks). It is based on the filming location at the Goathland train station for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. There you can see working steam trains akin to the Hogwarts Express in action. The only other example that comes to mind of a real-life location in recent sets is the First Flying Lesson since those scenes were filmed at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland.

I deeply dislike the switch to green roofs on the castle sets since the 20th anniversary. I think it looks bad (inauthentic) compared to the gray roof castle sets, and it has been a major barrier to me getting any castle sets since then. (I know I could probably get gray alternate pieces on my own, but it just irks me too much.) It would have been charming if Lego had offered both green and gray roof pieces for one of the 20th anniversary sets as a nod back to the early sets, but Lego should not have kept using the green roof color scheme for the sets since then.

I share the disappointment with this year's HP advent calendar with its focus on useless micro-builds. I thought the Yule Ball advent calendar was the best because it had great figures to complement the Clock Tower/Yule set, and also worked as a lower-cost way to get the Yule Ball for those who could not afford the clock tower set. On that note, if I could ask for one HP advent calendar in the future, it would be based on Diagon Alley. I simply couldn't afford the Diagon Alley set, and I imagine that there are plenty of other people in a similar situation, so it would be very helpful if Lego offered a low-cost version of Diagon Alley in the form of an advent calendar.

At a Costco near San Francisco, I saw good deals on two of the recent Harry Potter sets. The Ministry of Magic is selling there for $79 and Dumbledore's Office is $56.

I will limit my list to favorite sets I actually bought, and I did not buy any sets costing more than $100. 1. 2018 Great Hall 2. 2019 Clock Tower 3. Attack on the Burrow 4. Hagrid's Hut 5. 2020 Advent calendar (Yule Ball) 6. Hogsmeade Village 7. Expecto Patronum 8. Rise of Voldemort 9. Grindelwald's Escape (esp. for thestral!) 10. Polyjuice Mistake

Thanks for this intriguing idea. One thing I particularly like about this prospect is that they could include the invisibility cloak that hasn't been available since the first HP minifig series. Thanks for that reminder about the Leaky components in the 2021 AC. I guess there is more reason to hope for some Hog's Head items if there ever is a Hogsmeade Advent calendar. I'd also like it if the Advent calendar included a sign for the owl post, since it doesn't seem not all that likely that the owl post building will be in a future set.

While I like the idea of a Hogmeade Advent calendar in theory (it is lends itself well to holiday decorations and wintery themes), I find it hard to imagine that the items Lego would actually be likely to include in that Advent calendar would be all that exciting. Of course it would be great to get Aberforth and some Hog's Head items, but, even though Lego sometimes offers bar-related items, I worry that Lego might be particularly wary of including those items in a Christmas-themed set. Following the pattern of the first two Harry Potter Advent calendars borrowing heavily from previous large sets, I would expect that a Hogmeade AC would repeat many items from the existing Honeydukes & Three Broomsticks set. Even though it repeated some pieces, I thought the Yule Ball Advent calendar did a nice job of adding some great new Yule Ball items not included in the previous Clocktower Yule set-- such as the Patil twins in Yule Ball dresses. However, I'm having a hard time identifying key figures that were notably absent from the Honeydukes &3B set and could now be made for the first time for a Hogmeade AC. I'd love to hear more ideas in response to kimimimi's question about what would make a good Hogmeade Advent calendar.

Especially if you don't already have the earlier version of the Burrow, I'd put the new Burrow at the top of your list of things to get. The Burrow is an iconic location that plays a prominent role in multiple books. This set features numerous important minifigs that were not in other recent sets. And the angled design makes the Burrow an interesting build, with good play features too.

My top pick for a new set would be the Ministry of Magic. It plays such a prominent role in the OOTP story, as well as in Death Hallows. It would be a good location for various minifigs that are still needed. Plus, the interesting design of the Ministry would make for a lovely set.

There was a leaked image posted on YouTube a couple months ago of the box for the Harry Potter brick-built objects set, and it showed the sorting hat, snitch, Harry's wand, two books, and Harry's glasses. Was that a real image or not? In other words, hasn't the content for this set already leaked?

I was initially troubled that to hear that the Great Hall was being redone in the Chamber of Secrets set because it seemed redundant with the 2019 Great Hall. Now having seen the layout of the new version, I see a potential adaptation that I like. In the new COS set, the DADA classroom seems rather small. Also, if I understand correctly, that room is positioned over the slide into the COS, and in the modular design, the new girl’s bathroom/polyjuice set is designed to fit in that space, so I think I will sub in the girl’s bathroom in that space. Then I will take some of the decorations from the new Great Hall room (the owl lectern, cereal boxes, etc.) and move them to my 2019 Great Hall. That will allow me to then convert the new Great Hall room into a more spacious version of the DADA classroom. Moreover, with the higher sloping ceiling of that room, there may be some way to recreate that great dragon skeleton hanging overhead in the movie version of the DADA classroom (perhaps using a Lego dinosaur skeleton). That way the new set becomes entirely nonredundant with the existing HP Lego sets since 2019.

Yes, I'd love to see a CoS polyjuice Advent calendar. Also, that AC could use the Slytherin common room as its background image, which would be visually quite interesting. While I wouldn't mind a Burrow AC, I don't see there being much to add beyond what was in the recent Lego set in terms of background image. In the movies, the main Christmas decorations at the Burrow are a basic tree and a cake with a moving figure on it. Not too exciting. Likewise, while I wouldn't mind getting more minifigs associated with the Burrow, those would largely be similar to minifigs that have already been done before. They would not be must-get items like the Ron and Harry Christmas jumpers or the Patils in Yule garb from prior ACs. Polyjuice Crabbe and Goyle and cat-Hermoine would be must-get!

Thanks to all of you who shared thoughts on the next HP Advent calendar. I agree with Karrit that while a Slug Club theme would fit the pattern of past Advent calendars, it wouldn't be very exciting for most folks who already have the Astronomy Tower. The idea of getting Malfoy in a black suit was interesting, but I doubt it would generate that much excitement outside of hardcore fans. While a Burrow or Grimmauld Advent theme would be better, I still don't see how they are going to generate exciting new minifigs. I wouldn't mind getting Weasley twins without pompoms on their heads with a Burrow Advent set, or Sirius in non-prison garb in a Gimmauld set, but none of that rises to the must-have quality of the Harry and Ron Christmas jumpers of 2019 or the Patils in Yule garb of 2020. And it is hard to imagine what holiday builds Lego would include with theses themes. The unfortunate gnome stuck on top of a tree for a Burrow set, or holiday caps on the mounted elf heads of Grimmauld both seem a bit troubling. As I think about options for HP advent calendars, the one that would excite me most-- but that I do not expect Lego to do-- would be based around the activities at Christmas in the Chamber of Secrets--.using the polyjuice to get info from Malfoy. That would give us new minifigs of Harry/Goyle, Ron/Crabbe, and cat-Hermoine. There could be repeats of Malfoy and Moaning Myrtle. And perhaps Lego could even include a new Percy as prefect. I think the Slytherin common room would make a visually interesting backdrop for this Advent calendar. Some downside are that the Slytherin room didn't have much holiday decoration, and the overall the negative associations with Slytherin. But I expect that many people would be excited to get the minifigs that would come with this theme.

Are there any credible leaks on what theme Lego will use for a 2021 Harry Potter Advent calendar? Given the pattern of the previous two HP calendars closely corresponding to Hogwarts sets (Great Hall for 2019 and Clock Tower/Yule for 2020), I've heard the idea that the 2021 Advent calendar could be linked to the Astronomy Tower/Slug Club set. However, whereas I thought the 2020 Advent calendar really did a nice job of adding figures and props relevant to, but missing from, the Clock Tower/Yule set (such as the Patil sisters in Yule garb), I don't see where there is much important stuff to be added to the existing Slug Club party content. Any ideas of what new figures and builds Lego would include if they go with the Slug Club theme for the next Advent calendar? Any ideas on what theme other than the Slug Club that Lego might use for the next Advent calendar?